<p style="text-align: center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-8195" href="http://astrodynamics.net/blog/?attachment_id=8195"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8195" title="10487870_s" src="http://astrodynamics.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/10487870_s.jpg" alt="this present moment" width="400" height="267" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our
willingness to pay attention.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is
marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending
loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Every relationship,
every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted
attention we bring to it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily
forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface
of existence.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the
song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of
another and be touched.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We need to be fully present in order to love a single
thing wholeheartedly.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to
receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">~Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield,
<strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Spirit-Heart-Parables-Spiritual/dp/0062503006" target="_blank">Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart</a></em></strong></p>
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